"Oh God, if I could believe you!" groaned Riever.
"Well, I can't help you," said Pen. She saw that with every word she was regaining the upper hand, and her heart was strong.
A cajoling note crept into Riever's voice. "Well, you couldn't do him any further good by lying. If he's anywhere near we're bound to get him in the morning. Within an hour Delehanty 'll send a party by boat up to the head of Back Creek. They'll form a line across the Neck. At dawn we stretch another line across this end and close up. He can't escape between them."
Pen's heart contracted painfully, but she gave no outward sign. "What are you telling me this for?" she asked.
"You can't do him any further good. Leave him to his fate. Tell me where he is so I'll know you're on the square with me."
"It's nothing to me whether you think I'm on the square or not."
Riever raised his clenched hands in a gesture of impotent rage. "I've got to know!..."
"I wouldn't tell you if I knew," said Pen. "I wouldn't betray any man. Not you if you were in his place."
With a painful struggle for self-command he took still another tone. "Well, that's all right. I'll say no more about him.... But give me a pledge!"
"Why should I?" she said coldly.